DeadCore First Impressions

It is rare… very rare that you can go on steam’s Popular New Releases section, pick a game that’s in the top 10 newest releases and it turns out to be decent. This one goes well beyond decent.

DeadCore is a first person platformer shooter and as with all platformer shooters your job is to jump and shoot. Let me make this abundantly clear from the beginning: there is nothing new gameplay wise in DeadCore that you don’t find in other games of the genre, it’s the balance, precision of the controls and gameplay elements that make it a worth-while title.

In this world, you are the random dude X that fell through a powerful magnetic storm and somehow didn’t shatter into pieces on impact, hell you didn’t even get cancer after all that. Once, you wake up a massive tower stands in front of you pointing towards the sky. The whole point of the game is to climb this tower, which is surrounded in platform puzzles and defense turrets. I will now go ahead and highlight aspects of this game for you, the reader, to decide if its worth your money or not. I know that platformers aren’t for everyone but I can say this is an excellent one, here are some positives:

+ The controls are very tight, which is rare for a 1st person platformer. You never feel like the game is cheating you out of making the correct jumps. If you fall it’s either your fault or a defense drone blew you off the platform. Controls-wise I have no complaints, they were definitely well thought out and implemented.

+ Dying is not taxing. The developers didn’t want to punish their audience for failing, but encourage them to try and try again. Checkpoints are quite often. There usually is one right before a very difficult part of the level. You can respawn at the checkpoint by either dying or pressing “R” and it is instantaneous, without any messages telling you how bad you’ve failed.

+ A very linear learning curb. The difficulty actually grows at a steady pace the further you progress. I’ve never found myself early in the game thinking “this is too difficult” or late in the game thinking something is too easy.

+ The graphics aesthetics are superb. The developers were trying to go for a Sci-Fi very distant future look and they nailed it down to a tee, creating a great atmosphere that makes it believable for the protagonist to be able to run that fast and jump that high in order to overcome the challenges he faces.

DeadCore is really pretty

Really Really pretty (image courtesy of Steam)

+ Although still technically a part of the aesthetics, the sound should have its own positive as it blends into the atmosphere perfectly. It is a very simple sound set, yet it works so well for the environment

+ Multi-platform support: It works on Windows, Linux and Mac. Satisfy all the gamers!!!

+ Story mode, if you just want to go through the puzzles and speedrun mode for the hardcore, top-score enthusiast.

+ There is some lore for those interested in the origins of the tower. You have to collect different peaces throughout the level in order to unlock the whole story but it’s nice that you don’t go through this whole puzzle system without any reason.

And now for some negatives:

– No controller support. I know it’s a precision platformer and there is nothing more precise than a mouse but if you could play Portal with a controller there is no reason why this shouldn’t allow for it. It says that you can run it on Steam OS, but with no controller support you have to have a KB+M connected to your steam machine in order to play.

– The floating texts that provide instructions. I know it’s a little nitpicky but it really breaks the atmosphere. Everything was so nicely designed and well thought-out only to be brought down by these generic floating texts… Please 5 Bits you can do better than that.

Why couldn’t these be a floating sign or something a little more fitting into this otherwise gorgeous world.

Conclusion: If you want to play a game that is really well designed and executed, while testing your reflexes and sharpening them in the process pick up DeadCore. It is a lot of fun and at times I think it’s better even than Portal when it comes to level design.

Howdy y'all! I'm a Systems Engineer working day (and sometimes night) to fix all of your VoIP communications problems but my heart resides with the over-captivating world of gaming. Although I can't say too much about gaming engines and raw usage of the GPU, when it comes to multiplayer LAN, WAN, MMO or CO-OP (local or otherwise) I'm your guy. Follow me on : Google + , Twitter, Facebook